A blog expanding on the subjects discussed in our movie "Science Sex and the Ladies." We blog critically on a specific intersection of science, sexuality, and feminism; particularly paying attention to how female sexual response is discussed, portrayed, and studied in our culture. So...if you're interested in science, sex, lady stuff, or indie movie making...this is the blog for you.

9.12.2016

Broad City S2 E1: The SSL Review

SSL Review Intro for Broad City S2 E1
I'm continuing to move through Broad City, SSL Reviewing eligible scenes when they arise. Now I'm rewatching Season 2 - which is fine because I love the show. Turns our S2 Episode 1 has an eligible and an honorarily eligible scene to SSL Review. An Eligible scene being those that include depictions and/or discussions of female orgasm and/or masturbation. That's the only thing I care about in these reviews. I'm looking for physical realism (if a lady orgasming from toe-sucking alone, I will call bullshit on scientific and basic anatomical ground), and I'm also looking for what part the scene plays in our cultural conversation about female orgasm and sexuality. So, thems the basics. If you want more TV SSL Reviews head HERE. Want some movie SSL reviews? Go HERE.

The Colin Farrell Sex Tape Scene
So this scene described below does not technically have a specific discussion or depiction of female orgasm or female masturbation, BUT it kinda does. Plus I like it, and I'm in charge so I'm counting it. Here's the scene, I'll discuss after.

The Details
Abbi and Ilana are in separate dressing rooms talking to each other through the walls. Abbi tells Ilana that she is having a date tonight where the dude is cooking her dinner and that she thinks it's pretty cool of him to do as a date.

Ilana:"You should check out the Colin Farrell sex tape, just to get back in the swing of things. specifically 8:58. He is feasting on her pussy like it's a dang milk skake. (In bad Irish accent) "It's me breakfast, lunch and fucking dinner, right here."Abbi:(Also in bad Irish accent)"It's 8:58, you said, sire?"Ilana: "Yes, but then you're gonna wanna swap the digs over to 9:44 for some master asshole play and then round it out at 12:47 with some good old fashioned fuck, fuck goose..

They then leave the dressing rooms and realize there was a huge line, with lots of little girls and their moms listening to everything they said. As they're moving past the line one woman says to Ilana:

Woman: "You said 8:58?"Ilana: You're gonna like what you see. I guarantee it.

The SSL Review Stuff
I mean, they didn't specifically speak about lady-bation, but the insinuation (at least what I got from it) was that Ilana is telling Abbi to masturbate to this hot sex tape before the date so she's well practiced for game time. It's a funny scene that involves both the main characters and a random woman being totally cool with the idea of watching porn, masturbating ('cause that just plain goes along with watching porn), admitting and talking about porn/masturbation among close friends, and being turned on by watching a hot dude star eat someone out. So, to me this is clearly a scene that normalizes things that need to be normalized in order for women to feel more entitled to their orgasm to their own clits and to their own sexual desire. What this scene is subtly telling it's viewers is that women masturbate, women like to watch hot dudes enthusiastically pleasuring women, and that it can be hot for women to objectify male stars in the same way men objectify female stars. these kinds of things can level the orgasm playing field. Bravo.Finishing on Male Stacy
This is also not as direct an SSL Review as normal, but this scene sequence does specifically mention lady-gasm. It also involves some female on male rape jokes, so that happens.

The Details
So the whole episode revolves around the fact that it is so, so, so hot out, and Abbi does not have air conditioning. Well Abbi is dating a guy (Seth Rogan) named Stacy (they call him Male Stacy), and he came over to her apartment to cook her a meal. So, he's cooking, which clearly makes it super crazy way hotter, and they're both dying. But, they get it together enough to go into the bedroom and get to doing it.

It's awkward and ridiculous because of various things related to the heat. Pretty quickly, Abbi is on top of him having the ol' intercourse. She's fairly upright and facing him. He's flat on his back, and she is not orgasming, but she's saying it's good and clearly really enjoying what's happening so far.

Then he starts saying that he's feeling crazy - which she awkwardly thinks is sexual, but it's just because he's overheating and then he passes out. Abbi starts freaking out and yelling his name (Male Stacy), but she doesn't disengage - if ya know what I mean. So, she's still cowgirl on passed out Male Stacy and she says, "oh shit," and looks right into the eyes of the Oprah poster on the wall in front of her.

It cuts after that, but when it comes back, Ilana and Abbi are walking down the street talking about it,

The SSL Review Stuff
There's some interesting things to discuss with how they approached jokes about rape - things I have no interest in blogging about, but I just wanted to acknowledge it, so if you are interested, you might find other people who will talk about that much better than I.

I have my SSL laser focus on what was insinuated about female orgasm. All we know from this 'discussion' of a lady-gasm is that it happened, and it happened with Male Stacy, while Male Stacy was passed out. What it does say is that she came. It also says that she must have desired her 'finish' so much that she did it even after her partner passed out.

It doesn't tell us how she physically got to orgasm, so I can't dissect whether the physical things happening to her could realistically have elicited orgasm, which is what I normally do. Anything could have happened. She could have reached down and rubbed the clit while she rode him. She could have leaned forward and started rubbing her clit against his pelvis. She could have grabbed her vibrator and pressed that against her vulva. All realistic possibilities that incorporate clitoral glans /vulva stimulation (cause we ladies need that for orgasm even if TV and movies usually show us orgasming from a dick stimulating the inside of our vaginas with no clit stimulation - which is BS).

So, the physical realism is there because there are realistic possibilities, and we don't know for sure either way. So, what else does this discussion of lady-gasm say to us?

I think the most important thing it says is that it insinuates females might want orgasms from a sexual pairing. This is important because there is such a strong sense in our culture that women are just not as interested in orgasm as men; that women can be fully satisfied with sex that doesn't involve the female orgasm. I mean women (and men) can be fully satisfied with a sexual encounter that doesn't involve orgasm, but it should be a choice every individual makes, and I think men largely have that choice and women don't. I think women just get what they get most of the time.

Well, Abbi needed it, and hopefully that told all her viewers out there, that they can need it too...just not with a passed out partner.Vulva Rating
This gets a 5 vulva rating for the simple fact that it showed characters we love and identify with asserting their need for orgasm in a way we rarely see from female characters.

They enjoy good porn where ladies get ate. the. hell. out. This is poignant because that particular act was harped on, and it is an act that would actually bring a woman to orgasm. This is in contrast to the most common thing we see in porn, i.e. ladies getting their vaginas banged, because that act would not, and notice it was not harped on. That means we saw women praising, enjoying, and desiring seeing explicit material that depicts things that would actually get them off.

They also do things that make it clear they want, nay need, to orgasm when they are in a sexual encounter. This is not usually a way females are depicted, and it normalizes (and again there's some more complicated things here about what is being insinuated about rape here...so keep that in mind), the idea that women, like men, have that driving, almost animal desire to get that damn orgasm once they get horny. We cannot even the orgasm playing field and get women's orgasms the status and necessity given males if we as a culture do not accept that males and females have a similar need and drive for orgasm.